Went out on a hot Saturday night, August 1 at 9:00 p.m., to try again at 20 miles. Skipped a Mexican restaurant to do it. My splits were:
13:06, 13:07, 12:51, 12:53, 12:11, 13:31, 12:28, 14:04 (water stop), 12:33, 12:38, 12:35, 12:23, 12:00.
Temperature at the end was 91 F, relatively high humidity as usual.
A quick calculation will show 13 miles, not 20. I intended to run these at 13:00 and ended up closer to 12:00, not exactly burning up NASCAR here in Houston. It's hard to keep running slow, but if you don't you will fail in this heat. I think it's the heat, I sure hope so.
Ran shorter distances a couple of times this week, which felt good. One run included 800M "sprints" for about five miles, with jogging in between. (Elaine, don't they call these some name that relates to unfortunate bodily functions?) I ran those at about 9:00, including the jogging in between. No knee problems for either run.
Going to try again in the morning. Wish me luck.
UPDATE: I made 20 miles Saturday morning. Started out at 4:08 a.m. and ran for a long time, most of it under a nearly full moon, 80 degrees until the sun came up late in the run. The first 16.33 were solid running, averaging about 13 (Stephen, those are times, not distances), but I had sped up for some reason during the last two miles, by about a minute a mile, and I ran out of gas as the sun started to beat down. So I walked/ran the last 2-2/3, including running in the last mile. I'm pretty happy with it. My knee barked a little bit at the beginning, then settled down and was not heard from again. Only a slight twinge in it this morning, which is also very good. I took S! Caps (electrolyte replacement) the whole time and they seem to help, though they are not magic pills. I got badly chafed, the first time that has happened to me. Even with technical fibers, you can't avoid profusely sweating in this heat. In fact, if you aren't sweating profusely you are probably in trouble. Jennifer and Scott are here this month and they thought it was funny that I went out and stashed water bottles along the route the night before. I told them all runners did that but I don't think they bought it.
Those are pretty good splits. I can't even do one split and if I do, it's sure not 13 feet.
ReplyDeleteGood luck in the morning. With that kind of a stride, anything's possible.
Mark, it's the heat. You will love St. George, much less heat, downhill, and no humidity....oh. Well it rained the entire time. It was actually cold, ha. And they are called Yasso 800s, not fartlek.
ReplyDeleteDid the chafing have anything to do with the fartleks?
ReplyDeleteSorry, I couldn't resist. Just give me notice before you kick me off the blog k E...
I am soooooo offended, but this insult doesn't compare to the variations on this theme I have been hearing from my kids all day. I know you didn't let loose with all your ammunition, but they haven't bothered to hold back. Someday I'll run a 10 minute mile and then you'll be sorry.
ReplyDelete